


Braving the Cold

by whoneedsapublisher



Category: Love Live! School Idol Project
Genre: F/F, Older Nico and Eli
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-04
Updated: 2021-03-04
Packaged: 2021-03-17 14:42:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 850
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29843070
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/whoneedsapublisher/pseuds/whoneedsapublisher
Summary: Nico is a fair weather girl. But she's not a fair weather fiancée. When it comes to down to freezing cold and fields of snow, there's one woman that Nico will put up with it all for.
Relationships: Ayase Eli/Yazawa Nico
Comments: 1
Kudos: 12
Collections: Idol Fanfic Heaven's Wake Up Challenger Event 2021





	Braving the Cold

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Wake Up Challenger 2021 prompt Easy-3 "Write a fic with characters aged-up over ten years"

Nico’s first impression of Russia was that it was goddamn FREEZING.

As soon as she stepped out of the already kind of chilly airport into the open air, it was like being hit by a full body snowball. It wasn’t as if she hadn’t _expected_ it to be cold- she was wearing nice, thick woolen socks, multiple layers, thermal underwear, and a very authentic puffy Russian coat and furry hat. But she felt like she might as well be wandering the streets naked on a cool autumn evening for all the good bundling up did.

“You okay there, Nico?” her fiance teased. “You’re shivering a little.”

“You’re all insane for living somewhere like this,” Nico grumbled. “You might as well build a house inside a friggin glacier.”

“Actually,” Eli said. “When you’re _inside_ something made of ice, it’s a little warmer than being outside on top of it. That’s why people build iglo-”

“Alright, alright,” Nico said. “I get it already. Can we get to to the bus before I freeze to death, please?”

As she shivered at the bus stop, rubbing her mittened hands against her arms in a pathetic attempt to generate a little heat, Nico forced herself to remember she was here suffering through this.

It wasn’t as if she’d never spoken to Eli’s family before. They’d known each other for over a decade. But now that they were officially dating and engaged, Eli wanted to present Nico to her extended family, including the grandmother she looked up to so much.

It seemed a little ridiculous, to get engaged “right away” like that, but the reality was that Eli and Nico had been dating for years behind closed doors. But idols were under a love ban, so officially, Nico was single and Eli was just a friend. Whether or not anyone believed that was largely irrelevant. All of idol culture was ultimately based on fantasies that everyone knew weren’t _really_ true. As long as Nico pretended like she wasn’t dating Eli and didn’t let any inarguable evidence surface, people would happily dismiss any closeness between them as “just being friends”.

But now Nico was retired, and retried idols could do whatever the hell they wanted with their lives. And what Nico wanted was to spend it with Eli.

The bus, thankfully, was heated, but Nico still clung to Eli tightly once they took their seats. It was mostly for warmth. Honestly. Definitely. If she, perhaps, just gained some kind of satisfaction from being able to hang on her girlfriend like this in public without having to care if someone could snap a picture, well, that was little more of a side benefit at best, surely.

Unfortunately, eventually the relatively warm bus ride came to an end and Nico was forced to let go of Eli and step back into the frozen air. Even worse, Eli’s house was not close to a bus stop, so Nico found herself dragging her suitcase through the snow as Eli walked casually ahead of her as if none of this bothered her in the slightest.

By the time they got close to Eli’s house, Nico was experiencing that most awful of both worlds- sweating from working out in cold weather clothes.

“Eli,” she panted, pausing for a moment and pulling her suitcase to a stop. “Wait up a minute.”

“Hm?” Eli said, turning around. How was she so completely unbothered? Alright, fine, so maybe she’d packed a _little_ lighter than Nico who _maybe_ had taken a few more outfits than she really needed so it made sense that she wasn’t as tired, but she was still freakishly unconcerned with the cold.

“You said that’s your house up there, right?”

“Yeah,” Eli said, smiling. “Just up there on the hill.”

“Ugh, give me a second…” Nico grumbled, unzipping a pocket of suitcase and digging around.

Eli looked at her in confusion.

“Don’t give me that “what are you doing, Nico?” look,” Nico said. “I’m meeting your family, remember? Do you really think I’m going to show up looking like I just ran a marathon and forgot my makeup?”

Pulling out a comb, Nico took off her hat and mittens and winced at the new chill. Well, sometimes beauty was suffering.

“You don’t need to worry about it so much, I’m sure they-”

“Yes I do, Eli,” Nico said resolutely, carefully adjusting her eyelash as she eyed herself in a small mirror. “This is important. They’re going to be my family too soon, right?”

In the edge of the mirror, Nico saw a soft smile settle on Eli’s face.

“...Yeah,” she said.

“So I have to make a good first impression,” Nico said. “So just sit there and wait for a minute.”

Ultimately, there was only so much even Nico could do to salvage the situation, and pulling off her hat and gloves had only worsened her runny nose and flushed cheeks. But when Eli’s grandmother, wrinkled but as fit as a fiddle, opened the door and smiled down at Nico, she was sure that she was presentable.

“Babushka, this is Nico. My fiancee.”


End file.
